VietNamNet Bridge – Since 2006, Vietnam’s footwear industry has beenfacing a lot of anti-dumping lawsuits, from the lawsuit in Europe, tothe threatened lawsuit raised in Mexico.

Most recently, Argentina has asked the Vietnam Leather and FootwearAssociation (Lefaso) to provide information about the production costsof the product items exported to the country. Brazil has alsoofficially raised a lawsuit against Vietnam’s shoes.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has confirmed that Brazilian shoesassociation, Abicalcaldo, has officially filed an anti-dumping lawsuitagainst Vietnam’s shoes to the Brazilian Department of CommercialDefense, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Development. OnDecember 15, the Brazilian Department of Commercial Defense released adocument, stating that it has officially handled the case.

Lefaso’s Secretary General, Nguyen Thi Tong, said that Brazil is not akey export market for Vietnam, as Brazil is one of the countries withthe highest shoe production in the world.

Born in 1824, the Brazilian shoe industry has been growing strong eversince. In 1968, the country began making footwear for export to the US.Currently, Brazil has over 9,000 shoemakers that put out 796 millionpairs of shoes a year, including 180 million pairs for export. Thecountry has 1,500 workshops that provide accessories for the shoeindustry. The labor force in Brazil proves to be profuse with apopulation of 190 million people.

According to Vietnam’s Commercial Affair Division under Vietnam’sEmbassy in Brazil, since 2005, Brazil has been ranked the third in theworld in terms of shoe production, with 762 million pairs of shoes,just falling behind China and India.

In fact, the shoe exports to Brazil in the last few years have remainedmodest, with just several tens of million dollars in turnover.According to the General Department of Customs, Brazil imported nearly$40 million worth of footwear from Vietnam in the first 11 months ofthe year. The country last year imported 28.6 million pairs of shoes,including 26.7 million pairs from China and 2.3 million from Vietnam.

Tong said that with the great advantages of Brazil’s shoes industry, Vietnam does not intend to compete with Brazil.

Tong said that to date, the Brazilian side has not made contact withLefaso, and therefore, the association does not have much informationabout the case.

However, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and Lefaso haveinformed Vietnamese shoemakers and exporters of the lawsuit, askingthem to be well-prepared for the lawsuit.

Tong went on to say that it will require a great deal of time fromAbicalcaldo’s filing to the announcement of the anti-dumpinginvestigation. In fact, though Abicalcaldo has filed the lawsuit, thisdoes not mean that the lawsuit will certainly take place. In the past,Mexico once also intended to raise a lawsuit against Vietnam’s shoes.However, it then met many difficulties in gathering figures for thelawsuit, while Vietnamese companies took action to prevent the negativeaspects, and the lawsuit did not occur.

Anyway, the information about the lawsuit in Brazil has badly affected the psychology of exporters and clients.

Vietnam expects to obtain the export turnover of $4.5 billion in 2008and hopes to export $5.1 billion worth of products in 2009.Vietnam-made shoes are being exported to 48 markets in the world, whilethe US remains the biggest export market, importing nearly $943 millionworth of products from Vietnam.